Hey Beautiful Soul, Welcome HomeHER. There is a particular kind of silence that arrives when everyone has finally stopped needing something from you. The calls have been returned. The questions have been answered. The responsibilities that could not wait have been handled. The people you love are settled, or at least settled enough for the moment, and the room becomes quiet. Then, without all the motion, you are left with yourself. For some women, that quiet feels peaceful. For others, it feels strangely unfamiliar. Because when so much of life has been organized around being needed, capable, dependable, productive, and strong, stillness can uncover a question we have not had time, or permission, to answer: Who am I when no one needs anything from me? I know something about moving through a single day as many women at once: mother, grandmother, mentor, student, founder, friend, caregiver, problem-solver, and the one expected to figure out what happens next. These roles are meaningful t...
Hey Beautiful Soul, Welcome HomeHER. Somewhere along the way, many women learned that love was safest when it was earned. We learned to become useful before anyone could call us a burden. We anticipated needs before they were spoken. We became dependable, accomplished, agreeable, strong, spiritual, and seemingly unshakable. We learned how to keep going, even when something within us was quietly asking to rest. From the outside, this may look like maturity. It may even be celebrated as excellence, ambition, faithfulness, or strength. Yet beneath the praise, a painful belief can begin to form: If I am not producing, helping, fixing, achieving, or holding everything together, will I still be worthy of love? That question does not always announce itself clearly. Sometimes it appears as guilt when you rest. Sometimes it sounds like apologizing for having needs. Sometimes it looks like saying yes when your spirit is asking you to slow down. Sometimes it is the anxiety you feel when you...